The essay "On Liberty" written by John Stuart Mill presents the utilitarian vision of human freedom. In my essay, I am going to show what kind of actions John Stuart Mill considers unacceptable and why. In the light of comparison between the customs in the United States and Mill's utopian society, I would like to examine to what extent the United States follows similar principles of freedom. I believe that John Stuart Mill was considerably more open to personal choice than we are nowadays, moreover, he would be very likely to disagree with some of the rules we consider essential.

John Stuart Mill is a strong believer in individual rights of privacy and freedom. According to him, any person (except children and barbarians) should be the only ruler of his or her destiny. "To individuality should belong the part of life in which it is chiefly the individual that is interested; to society, the part which chiefly interests society."

Mike Mills (REM)

John Stuart Mill

Portrait of Senator John Stuart Williams of Kentuc...

However, there are exceptions. "As soon as any part of a person's conduct affects prejudicially the interests of others, society has jurisdiction over it, and the question whether the general welfare will or will not be promoted by interfering with it, becomes open to discussion." This awards every individual large responsibility; the responsibility for life.

Nowadays, the question of responsibility for one's own actions is still widely discussed. It became a rule that one has the right of choice only over the "less important" actions. For example, a person is considered to be perfectly capable of deciding personal relationships or career interests. What is, however, completely unacceptable, is the decision over one's existence.

Present society seems to assume that it is able to understand individual members' best interests better than they do themselves. The best example can be driving.

More Modern Philosophy essays:

... of a statement is relative, not only to the individual accepting or rejecting the statement, but also to ... as a respectable philosophy. His theory of cognition states that cognition is a biological function of the ... humans survive and succeed in their efforts. Marx's theory of knowledge is a form of ...

... eventually reached the surviving Jews, as well as the governments of the United States and Great Britain. In April 1943, the 65,000 remaining Jews of ... changed the legal status of black people, but a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions struck down federal statutes designed to enforce the amendments ...

... on one's perception of past experiences, what everyone sees. It is based on a individuals own reality, and the faith in which he/she believes in, ... the miracle. Throughout the rest of the readings Hume states a few events which many believe are miracles. He discredits many these miracles through his ...

... believe in substance dualism. However there are also serious arguments against it The first major argument against dualism is simplicity. Materialists state that because their view is simpler (they only believe ... the mental capacities depend on the brain's neural activities. The materialists show that ...